Here’s what you may have missed, and what you need to know as you start winding down:
Officers conducting a welfare check found Clearwater landlord Mary Ring shot to death at her home Monday morning, victim of a homicide, Clearwater police said. Her two most recent tenants face charges in connection with the slaying. Lawrence Edward Cannon and Jennifer Elam told detectives that Cannon shot her to death in the home at 1132 Engman St. on Feb. 5, and they have spent the past two weeks trying to decide how to dispose of her body.
As you head out for your drive home, check out our live blog for the latest traffic updates and road conditions across Tampa Bay.
Curtis Reeves, the man accused in the fatal 2014 shooting in a Wesley Chapel movie theater, is in court again today for a hearing to determine if he should be immune from prosecution under Florida’s "stand your ground" law. Stay with tampabay.com for live coverage from the courtroom.
An excavator has begun tearing down the Tampa Tribune building, the first step in removing the riverfront property that housed the 123-year-old newspaper, which closed after it was purchased by the Tampa Bay Times in May 2016.
Members of the Florida Council of Churches and representatives from the AME and Catholic denominations today called on lawmakers to pass a moratorium on executions, citing high cost of death penalty appeals, the possibility of wrongful convictions and the impact on victims’ families being forced to relive their loved one’s murder repeatedly in court.
Two Miami Republicans in Congress today questioned the Trump administration’s new policy exposing nearly all immigrants in the country illegally to deportation. U.S. Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen were speaking at an event highlighting the contribution of immigrants to Miami’s fledgling tech industry when the Department of Homeland Security announced its rules expanding the categories of people prioritized for removal.
Anti-abortion activists working to confirm Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch will demonstrate outside Sen. Bill Nelson’s Tampa office tomorrow.
Sprouts Farmers Market, an organic niche grocery store chain based in Phoenix, will open its long anticipated first store in the Tampa Bay area Wednesday at 7 a.m. The 27,000-square-foot store, located at 15110 N. Dale Mabry Highway, will also be the first Sprouts store to open in Florida, and likely with the same kind of fanfare we saw for other new brands — think Trader Joe’s and Wawa, with similar cult-like followings. Unlike Trader Joe’s, parking shouldn’t be a problem.
A cow that apparently escaped from a slaughterhouse has led police on a wild chase through New York City streets. Police corralled the animal in a backyard in Jamaica, Queens, after a chase that lasted more than an hour.
The Bucs have reached a settlement with former kicker Lawrence Tynes, who had sued the team in 2015, seeking $20-million and claiming that their negligence regarding a MRSA infection ended his NFL career in 2013.
Bill Rodgers, perhaps the greatest long-distance male runner in American history, a people’s champion if ever there was one, is giddy about Saturday’s race, one that is near and dear to him: the Publix Gasparilla Distance Classic 15K. Plus, it’s a milestone — the 40th running. That’s enough for Rodgers, who won the inaugural Gasparilla 15K in 1978.
The first thing to know about racer Sting Ray Robb is that, yes, Sting Ray is his real name. The second thing to know is that the story behind it perfectly fits the 15-year-old Idaho native who will compete in the Pro Mazda series during next month’s Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. "It’s not the fish," Robb said. "A lot of people think that."
One of the most popular and acclaimed bands of the mid-2000s blog-rock boom, Spoon, is finally making a long-awaited trip to Tampa, with a concert at the Ritz Ybor on May 1. Tickets are $29.50 and up, and they go on sale Friday. Click here for details.
"Florida artist can paint so real you’ll think it’s a photograph." That’s how artist Kevin Grass describes himself in his Twitter bio, and admittedly, it is hard to tell sometimes when looking at his photorealistic paintings. Grass, who lives in Tarpon Springs, was recently named Artist of the Year by Redwood Media, which runs art shows across the U.S., including Spectrum Miami. Here are three paintings inspired directly by spots around Tampa Bay.
The Times photo archives are filled with hundreds of thousands of images that capture the history and flavor of the Tampa Bay area and beyond. Having recently added a sizable number of historical Sunken Gardens photos to the archive,we decided to pull some out and share them with you.
Afternoon update is a weekday feature from tampabay.com. Check in Monday through Friday for updates and information on the biggest stories of the day.
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